Excelsior Springs, Mo. (January 12, 2025) – Excelsior Springs Hospital (ESH) is a community-driven healthcare system working with professionals who provide more than basic care. Skylar Donaldson, Outpatient Specialty Services Manager, details outpatient specialty clinics offered locally for those in the community for area residents who need them the most.
Donaldson explained that the outpatient specialty clinics at ESH partner with physicians from larger hospitals such as KU Medical Center, North Kansas City, and Liberty Hospital. Each physician “comes in and offers their care within our community,” she said.
Of those outpatient specialty clinics, Skylar noted 12 different services, including:
- Hematology care
- Oncology care
- Orthopedics, including large and small joint care
- Gastrointestinal care
- Urology care
- Cardiology care
- Pulmonary care
- Rheumatology care
- Podiatry care
- Dermatology care
- Pediatric care, including non-operative and orthopedic care.
“The only specialty clinic operating full time, Monday through Friday, is our pediatric services,” she said, “The rest of them travel from other locations.”
Each physician visiting ESH for their patients is accredited through their originating organization, as most physicians are available locally, weekly or monthly.
For those in the community seeking care through one of the specialty clinics, Skylar mentioned they would need to call the ESH’s scheduling department to request an appointment. During this time, the scheduling team will discuss insurance and patient demographics before finalizing the appointment.
Currently, Skylar said appointment times can vary depending upon which specialty service is needed due to insurance coverage and the physician’s schedule, as some only come in once a month.
As for insurance, the specialty clinics accept a vast amount of different coverage plans within the ESH network including Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, Advantra, Ambetter, Anthem, Beech Street, Benefit Management, Cigna, CoreSource, Fist Health, Freedom Network, Galaxy Health Network, Great West, Healthcare Preferred, Home State Health, Humana, Missouri Care, Multi Plan, Mutual of Omaha, Preferred Health Professionals, Private Health Care Systems, Southcare Healthcare Preferred, Tricare, United Healthcare and Missouri Healthnet.
Skylar added that once insurance coverage has been assessed, the patient will be billed for their co-pay. She said every patient utilizing the services can discuss payment plans, and financial counseling is available for those who need assistance while receiving the care they need.
She described each visit with a specialty physician lasting anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, with 90% of lab and imaging work done in-house. Yet, in some cases, specialized imagining and labs, “that require specific software” will be outsourced for the patient to receive the most accurate results possible while remaining local.
Skylar also mentioned that even when a patient comes in for a specialty service and needs a procedure done, all pre- and post-procedure care remains local through ESH. “Odds are a patient will see the same nurse from the time they came into the clinic, to the time they have the procedure,” she said. “I love this clinic because of the small-town vibe; patients can get the care of the big city but in a small, intimate setting.”
In addition to ESH’s outpatient specialty clinics, Skylar mentioned other outpatient services offered at ESH daily, including:
- Physical therapy services
- Occupational therapy services
- Speech therapy services
- Primary care services
- Psychiatric services
For more information regarding ESH’s comprehensive list of services offered to the community, visit https://www.eshospital.org/. To schedule an appointment and to speak to someone directly for outpatient specialty services, call (816) 629-2700.
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